Keeping the spirit.Where it belongs.

Evaporation

The oldest cost in the trade.

As spirit matures in oak, a portion evaporates through the head of the cask: the angels’ share. It is a graceful name for a plain commercial fact. Every litre that leaves the cask is spirit that will never be bottled or sold, and the loss deepens with temperature, with humidity, and with time. The Scotch Bonnet is made to slow it.

How it works

Fitted in seconds.
Working for years.

The Scotch Bonnet is a cask-lid assembly of compressed fibreboard with a moisture-resistant core. In essence, it is more wood. It sits over the head of a filled cask and works with the cask, never against it.

I

Seat

It seats over the head of the cask, above the bung, the stopper that closes the fill hole. No tools, no modification. It lifts away by hand and leaves no residue.

II

Breathe

Ventilation channels let the cask breathe, as it must, while a reflective inner layer holds back the alcohol vapour and heat that drive evaporation.

III

Retain

More spirit remains in the cask through maturation. The cask is never sealed, and the spirit goes on developing against the wood exactly as it should.

Why us

Made of wood.

The Scotch Bonnet is compressed fibreboard, drawn from natural virgin wood fibre. It is food-contact safe and sympathetic to the cask, so that the spirit meets nothing it has not already met in the wood around it, and its character is left entirely alone. It is highly durable, and reusable through fill after fill.

Other fittings bring plastic or metal to the head of the cask, and with them the risk of altering what matures beneath. We bring only more wood, FSC-certified, the mark of timber from well-managed forests, and recyclable at the end of a long life.

Natural oak fibre
Compressed fibreboard
FSC-certified
At a glance

Made to sit quietly in the warehouse.

Lightweight

Easy to handle, move and stack.

Stable fit

Sits securely on the cask.

Stackable

Designed for efficient storage and transport.

Natural materials

Made of wood, with nothing unnecessary.

Re-usable

Built to be used again and again. Sustainable by design.

Climate-adaptable

Performs in a wide range of conditions, all year round.

Locations of use

Every cask, every climate.

Scotland

Whisky

Patient maturation through long, cool Scottish seasons.

United States

Bourbon

Hot summers and new charred oak, where losses run high.

Mexico

Tequila

Warm highland ageing, from reposado to añejo.

The Tropics

Rum

Heat and humidity, where evaporation is greatest of all.

Speak to the makers.

Arrange a trial on your own casks, or request a purchase quote for your warehouse. We are always glad to hear from distillers who take maturation as seriously as we do.